THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
THEY'RE
"BRINGIN' HOME THE BACON"-TEN TONS OF WHALE MEAT
Smiles of the Eskimos show they are anticipating a feast on a young bowhead which they
are towing back to their village (page 651). The boats are the foremost of five in tandem,
driven by outboard motors, which were needed to haul the whale. The lines in the foreground,
of walrus hide, lead back to the other boats. In the background is Cape Prince of Wales, western
most point of the North American mainland.
In all probability it was from there that
the first Eskimos to visit North America
set out on their historic voyage. When I
returned to the Alaskan mainland a few
days later I saw the New World just as
they must have seen it for the first time
the rugged mass of Cape Mountain rising
out of the sea-and I have already de
scribed the thrill that the sight brought
to me.
Besides excavating the mounds at Wales,
our expedition made a careful search for
traces of settlements of pre-Eskimo peoples,
ancestors of the Indians, who presumably
came to North America long before the
Eskimos themselves, but perhaps through
this same region. We made a thorough
search of the stream valleys and lowlands
between the beach and mountains for some
distance up and down the coast, but found
nothing but fairly recent Eskimo remains.
If pre-Eskimo remains exist at or in the
general vicinity of Wales, they are com
pletely covered over. While we may still
assume, on theoretical grounds, that man
first entered the American Continent some
where around Bering Strait, it should be
recognized that no traces of these earliest
migrants have yet been found.
We now know that a highly developed
and highly specialized Eskimo culture has
existed around Bering Strait for at least
several thousand years, and it is improbable
that any important Indian migrations took
place after the Eskimos became established.
On the contrary, all the evidence indicates
that the Eskimos were among the latest of
the Old World peoples to enter America.
656